Boeing, SpaceX get NASA contracts to build manned spaceships

US space agency NASA announced Tuesday that it has awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to build commercial spaceships that will send US astronauts to space from American soil.

"Today we are one step closer to launching our astronauts from US soil on American spacecraft and ending the nation's sole reliance on Russia by 2017," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told a teleconference.

Bolden said NASA plans to use Boeing's CST-100 and SpaceX's Dragon to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station and return them to Earth.

The total contract value is $4.2 billion for Boeing and $2.6 billion for SpaceX, he said, adding that the spacecraft will launch from the Cape Canaveral complex in Florida.